Soundings

Whenever Venus and Earth come closest ... which is whenever Venus comes between Earth and sun, at inferior conjunction ... Venus always shows the same face to Earth.  No one knows why.  Pure coincidence?

We are losing the stars ... and not just from light pollution.  Plans call for fleets of orbiting satellites that will be so large ... and so numerous ... they will literally blot out the stars.

John Barentine is an amateur PhD astronomer, co-founder of the Center for Space Environmentalism and Principal Consultant at Dark Sky Consulting, LLC.  We spoke in October of 2026.  This is part of that conversation.

Hamlet – directed by John Deaderick – is on the boards at the Nevada Theater, October 29-November 8.  I spoke with John about the play.

Venus and crescent moon will float close to each other in the western sky, in the twilight after sunset.

May-June, 2026 - Pressure began rising within a tank of methyl methacrylate in Garden Grove.  A little chemistry behind the event.

Venus and Jupiter move close in Earth's sky, reaching conjunction before dawn, 6/9 ... putting them super-close, after sunset, 6/8 & 6/9 ... and still, pretty darn close, in the evening sky, for some days after that.

Getting the 3000-ton Artemis II launch vehicle off the ground and to the moon requires 4500 tons of thrust; but the crew will fly home on a free return trajectory.

3March2026 ... before dawn ... the moon will suffer total eclipse.
Also, a few words about the 1918 flu pandemic.

Atmospheric rivers do not bring rain to CA ... they bring moisture.

The 1928 flu pandemic killed more people than died in all of the so-called great war.  How do viruses do it?